Planes: A Photo Essay

Hi, I’m Noran, and I’m afraid of planes. Let me give you a little background first; I’m equally terrified and amazed by planes. I’m terrified because we often hear of plane crashes and hijacking and such, and my fear elevated especially after a recent plane crash that hit pretty close to home. But, I’ve been amazed since my recent trip to the U.S. from Cairo.

Including the three domestic flights I took within the U.S., surviving a total of 32 hours in-flight was not easy, it required a lots of perseverance. But, from squeezing those 32 hours into two weeks, I learned a lot about planes, flying, and gained a new perspective on the whole experience.

Granted, I’m still terrified at the idea of getting on a plane, but there’s a new element of excitement at takeoff, landing, and the amazing views we get on top there.

Just the idea of going somewhere new and different gets me on the edge of my seat, so if flying is the way to get there, I usually will get myself together for however long I need to be in the air. Planes are so interesting to me. No matter how much physics you tell me, I’ll never be able to comprehend how a 100 ton piece of metal can soar up in the air in a matter of three minutes.

I’ve also come to notice that seeing a whole city at a glance from above can make me very emotional. It makes me very cheesy and contemplative of my very existence.

And don’t even get me started on that one time that I saw another plane a few kilometers below us while I was on a plane. I started thinking about the people in that plane, their stories. Looking at the view from a plane is like people watching, but call it World Watching instead. It’s a hundred times more interesting. Being in that mental position in planes definitely did lower the levels of my terror!

I was tracking my dad’s flight home from a work trip the other day, and I found this website called Flight Radar. It was basically the home version of World Watching. I didn’t even think that was possible. Basically, on a world map it shows all the planes in the air right now.

Last time I checked, there was about 10,600 planes in the air at that moment. While anxiety-triggering, this statistic was also calming at the same time. Statistics don’t help irrational fears very much, but for me, knowing that there are about ten thousand planes in the air at every moment that end up just fine 99.99% of the time(not a real statistic) does slightly ease the mind.

Living near the airport, I hear plane sounds every 10 minutes, and it’s cool to find out where that plane is going. The world watching element came from clicking each airplane on the map, and seeing where they’re from, where they’re headed and how long they have to go. You could just imagine the stories, the people and the memories to be mad.

As an aspiring traveller, it was really fun for me, and I hope someday soon I’m on one of these planes going somewhere new to discover the world, meet people from all across, and just learn more about everything.